MR. TAYLOR' S FIRST REPLY. 27 



Sabbath-breaking excuscd by hunger. The law subserrient to man. 



tional evidence, the preceding Proposition, with which, indeed, 

 the present one is closely conneeted. Think you he would 

 have justified a sh'ght infringement on the sixth, the eighth, 

 or the tenth commandment — on any moral law, in short, by 

 the plea of hunger? — -that he could ever have permitted the 

 doing of that ^^ which is not lawful" in natural duty? — that he 

 could yet appeal to the precedent of the priests (who, by the 

 necessity of their office, impinge upon the literal inhibition of 

 the fourth commandment), and hold the ''unlawful" doer — 

 '^guiltless?" The question needs but to be asked! 



But, further than this, he asserts, ^^ The Sabbath was made 

 for man — not man for the Sabbath. '^ The institution is 

 subordinate to the man, and not the man to the institution.* 

 Could he have said this of any law but a positive or ceremonial 

 one ? Assuredly not ! — Man is subordinate to ^^ moral" law, 

 and not moral law to the man. " Were the observation of the 

 Sabbath a natural duty,'^ justly remarks Bishop Warburton, 

 '^ it is certain man was made for the Sabbath ; the end of his 

 creation being for the observance of the moral law. On the 

 contrary, -positive institutions were made for man.^^ {Div. 

 Legation, B. iv. sec. 6, note.') This furnishes another proof 

 that the fourth commandment is positive, ceremonial, and 

 Jewish. 



Singularly enough, J. N. B. quotes a part of this very 

 passage to confirm its obligation ! " 'The Sabbath was made 

 for man/ that is, not for the benefit of that peculiar nation, 

 but for the good of the whole human race.'^ To read this 

 alone, one would think that the old Pharisees had been sad 

 Sahhath-hreahers, and that Jesus was trying to reform them — 

 by preaching up the universal obligation of this glorious in- 

 stitution; while every Bible student knows that the fact is 



* "A principle is here laicl down, which it is clearly impossible to 

 confine to the Sabbath alone. Rather it must extend to the whole circle 

 of outward ordinances." Trench. {^Notes on the Miracles, ch. xix.) 



